But...at http://mfslive.org/winmfs/ I read: Restore Tivo Drive
Use this option to restore the image you created with backup. It will not restore mfstools backup file. As a matter of fact, backup format is totally different. You will get a "hardware failure" error if you restore the backed up image and install the drive to another TiVo.
(italics added).

Is that referring to exactly what I'm doing? If so then how would someone get a new drive working if their original wasn't working? I have not yet tried my new drive out in my Tivo (actually my Dad's Tivo 20miles away).

Answering my question above -- It works! I successfully upgraded to 500GB without any problems. Here's the rest of the story for those who follow.

(flopmister, read the previous post and this one. In abt 3hrs you can upgrade your box)

- I opened the Tivo (TX60) and removed the 160GB harddrive. Very easy with small torx bit.
- installed the WD 500GB in its place. Restarted box.
- Booting took 10mins, sitting at the "Almost there...just a few more minutes" screen. This is where the old drive hung so I thought I had failed and left the room, but when I returned it was done.
- Message: Error #51 existed which said I should call some number.
- Ran "Clear and Delete Everything" from the Settings menu. Took 65mins (!)
- Rebooted. 10mins.
- Ran Guided setup -- everything works fine. Shows "up to 609hrs"

Dear fellow RS-TX users,
I know this may sound like a broken record after reading through prior posts, but would ANYONE be able to send me an image for RS-TX20? After 4 years of enjoying my tivo, the hard drive died. I carefully followed all of the great ideas you all posted and interesting tricks (kickstarting, unplugging) but nothing worked so I purchased an instantcake image. Unfortunately, the image I bought was for the wrong tivo system. I am new to computers and am trying to learn just enough to be able to fix my tivo and don't have the money right now to do a full upgrade. Would someone please send me a RS-TX20 image if they have one saved somewhere? The PVR site I bought instantcake from is giving me a hard time and I really do not want to give them more money when they are not being sympathetic to my mistake. I guess the correct image I need should end with a -565 ?

Hey everyone,
Major issues with my unit and came across this page trying to find an answer as to what has happened. I have an rs-tx 20 dvd recorder and have never had a problem. About two weeks ago I came home and the picture was frozen. I unplugged the power cord and rebooted the unit. When it started booting back up, the picture was all frazzled. It was scrolling diagonally and blurry and unable to be clearly viewed what was on the screen. Even once it finished booting up(after I heard the tivo them when it's booting up), it was still not viewable. There was no color and the picture wasn't visible. I've trying changing the av cables and still no luck. I let it sit for a bit hoping it would fix itself. It recorded the programs that were scheduled to record that night, although I can't view them because the video is all messed up. Ultimately the unit continues to keep freezing and even when rebooted it does the same thing. I called toshiba and tivo support and they said they could fix it if I shipped it to them along with $140, which doesn't sound appealing consider I spent close to a grand when I bought the unit to get it all setup. Can someone help me?? I've had this tivo for 4 years and never had any problems until now and don't want to have to resort to get a comcast dvr but don't know if I'm gonna have any choice. Thanks for any possible help anyone may provide...

First time poster here. Lot of good info here also. I have a Tx-20 and love it, altho it is quite big, but its great for the bedroom. Anyway if someone could tell me what the difference is between extreme and high quality on record is, that would be great. I want to record some stuff on to dvd but since I record everything on the highest setting it wont fit a 1 hour show on the dvd. Or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

Also I noticed that there is a standard dvd burner drive in the unit, at least it looks like it. Can this be replaced with a dual layer recorder? Was thinking it might work.

First time poster here. Lot of good info here also. I have a Tx-20 and love it, altho it is quite big, but its great for the bedroom. Anyway if someone could tell me what the difference is between extreme and high quality on record is, that would be great. I want to record some stuff on to dvd but since I record everything on the highest setting it wont fit a 1 hour show on the dvd. Or am I doing something wrong?

Click to expand...

The higher the quality a program is recorded in, the better it will look during playback... But of course, it also takes up more room, both on the TiVo's hard drive and on a DVD. I believe the various recording qualities allow for up to 1, 2, 4, and 6 hours to be saved to a single DVD, respectively. So, a 1-hour extreme quality recording should fit on a DVD, but a 1:01 recording (as some networks do nowadays) probably wouldn't.

Also I noticed that there is a standard dvd burner drive in the unit, at least it looks like it. Can this be replaced with a dual layer recorder? Was thinking it might work.

Click to expand...

Actually, if memory serves I believe the drive itself is dual-layer, and accepts both + and - media... However, the TiVo software itself restricts to single-layer and - media. So, probably nothing you can do about that.

Thanks for the quick reply. I am going to try a few things out with the burning as I have never used it for that. Guess I will have to use high quality to record with if I wish to burn it on a dvd.

Ok I am burning a 1 hour ( 1hour exactly) show no problem right now. Is there anyway to stop the 1 hour 1 minute shows at 1 hour exactly so I can record those if I wish? I mean the last minute is just the credits anyway so you are not missing anything.

Actually I have discovered that if I chose to record another program right after the 1 hour 1 minute show you can tell it to cut short the 1 hour 1 minute show by 1 minute. Seems to be the only way to do it. Then just delete the extra recording after.
I am going to try a DL disc next. Love this unit tho. Got a good deal on it I think. Paid $300 for it and its got Lifetime Plus subscription on it.
Good deal or not , my wife loves it so if she's happy, I'm happy. If she's not happy, I'm not happy with half my ****. LOL

Nope didn't like the DL disc. Got invalid or unsupported disc. Oh well maybe in the future there will be a update that will allow the DL to work.

I've done a search of the forums, and I haven't found the answer to this question.

I'm looking to change cable companies. I have a series2 with wishlist and season pass items all setup. If I go through guided setup to change from cable company 1 to cable company 2, will I lose all that setup information?

I would guess that all the channel numbers would change. At best, I would like to believe that all season pass stuff would just convert to the new tv channels. But I would like to know if I should be worried, and probably write down all my season pass information so that I might re-enter the information again after i rerun guided setup for the new cable company.

Well here is my experience when changing from 1 cable company to another.

In Olathe Kansas, we had a choice of "cable box or not", first.

(somewhere in here it connected to TiVo to get the setup information needed to proceed. I don't know what it needed, nor do I recall 'exactly' where in this procedure it asked this question. But it was early on for sure.)

Update 1-11-2009 - The season pass didn't seem to update "all" programs, and I cannot determine why some did, and some did not. But even for those that did not, the recording did indeed use the right channel. I guess, in time, it will all sort out on its own.

Selecting cable box (I didn't use one prior to this), the system then asked which cable company...

Comcast/Surewest/AT&T Uverse/I don't know

After selecting the proper company, it asked me about my cable box.

It is a Scientific Atlanta box. It then asked how many digits it needed to change channels. 3 digits was the default, and I stuck with it.

There were a few tests as the system changed channels and then asked how well things went. In my case, everything was just fine.

Then it downloaded enough programming data to get it started.

It seems my old "todo" and "season pass" information was still there. And the old channel numbers were present.

I then went to look up programs by title, and looked for my upcoming movie. (I had a movie that was supposed to start recording in the next 30 minutes, handy it was!) And in this title search, it showed the movie name, the proper (new) channel, and that it was to record it shortly. So while the 'todo' list wasn't 100&#37;, it was going to do the recording with the new information.

At the moment, it is downloading the rest of the guide information. And after a while, I'll go back into the system and check all these values again. I'll update this post with the final results.